August 8, 2005

Dear Sir,

Holy Trinity Church was packed, there was hardly a seat to be had. It was the last Sunday of July and we had all gathered to say Goodbye to our much loved Minister and his wife, Canon Alan Tilson and Jenny.

We listened intently to his last sermon, wondering what message he was going to leave us with. Typically, he asked us to stay together as a family and continue to support the Church.

Now, an emptiness has settled on the church, his wonderful smile, warmth and kindness has gone together with the loving personality of his wife.

There is no replacement for Alan and Jenny they are very special people. We will miss them, always.

IRENE COOK

City of Hamilton

Housing Trust probe

August 31, 2005

Dear Sir,

I have made the front page of your paper the last two mornings in respect to the Bermuda Housing Trust. In my humble opinion the public interest might be served if I could spell out the issues as I see them.

First, why have I not enquired about undertaking the audit of Bermuda Housing Trust for the last 40 years? Well, I have enough work to do so I don?t exactly go looking for more. It is the responsibility of Government Ministries, Departments or organisations to inform me of the existence of corporations or funds which fall within the mandate of the Auditor General. More often than not, I notice the possible existence of such organisations from reading Cabinet Conclusions and the local papers.

Once in a while, someone might call me to ask why I am not the auditor of a certain organisation. In the case of the Bermuda Housing Trust, Mr. John Barritt, MP did call me to ask that question. Unfortunately, the matters now boiling around the Trust have made this question fairly political. Nonetheless, if I strip the question of its current political complications, I cannot escape the fact that Mr. Barritt has the same right to ask that question as any other concerned person, and I have the duty to give him the same respect as I would give anybody else, and follow it up.

I did research Mr. Barritt?s query, i.e. Why isn?t the Auditor General the auditor of the Bermuda Housing Trust? The following are my conclusions and feelings on the issue. The audit mandate of the Auditor General in Bermuda is comprehensive. The accounts of the Senate, the House of Assembly, all Government departments and offices (including the Public Service Commission) and all courts of Bermuda are audited by the Auditor General per section 101(2) of the Constitution.

In addition, in accordance with section 6(b) of the Audit Act 1990, the Auditor General audits every Government-controlled entity whose accounts are not referred to in section 101(2) of the Constitution. A Government-controlled entity is described as any entity whose affairs the Government can ensure are conducted in accordance with its wishes ? by virtue of rights conferred by the Constitution, or by possessing voting power or the holding of shares, or by some other means. The ability to appoint a Board is considered ?control? in professional criteria, and would be ?control by some other means? if it could be shown that the Government appoints the Board.

Under section 2(2) of the Bermuda Housing Trust Act 1965, the Governor appoints the Board. However, under section 2(9) of this Act, the Governor exercises his power under section 2(2) ?on the advice of the Minister?. In fact it is my understanding that the de facto procedure follows logically the de jure prescription ? the Governor?s office is not brought into the loop at all in the appointment of members to the Board; the Minister appoints directly. In my humble opinion, therefore, the Minister appoints the Board of the Bermuda Housing Trust; therefore there is Government control; therefore the Auditor General is the auditor. This is factual even if it was a UBP member of Parliament who brought it to my attention This being the case, the Auditor General is not the auditor of the Bermuda Housing Trust by choice. He is the auditor by law and is in no position to refuse to act. In my opinion the Board should have recognised the nature of its relationship with Government years ago and informed me of my responsibility to audit their accounts. If this had been done, the current embarrassment and the unnecessary politicising of the issue could have been avoided ? to the benefit of Bermuda.

Public disclosure and accountability is another issue. Certainly the Bermuda Housing Trust is exempt from any responsibilities laid out in the Charities Act 1978 by virtue of section 2 therein, which exempts all organisations established under another public Act from the obligations set out in the Charities Act. The Bermuda Housing Trust Act 1965 is a Public Act and therefore, for instance, under the Charities Act 1978, the Trust does not have to submit its financial statements to the Registrar where they would be available for inspection by members of the public. Whether the Trust should have public disclosure of its operations is another question.

The Bermuda Housing Trust Act 1965 is an interesting piece of legislation and, like too much of Bermuda?s legislation, is grandiose in its grasp but cannot be counted on to clear the air in an environment of mistrust, uncooperativeness and lack of goodwill. For instance, the Act provides the Trust with the following:

1. The power to raise money by means of fetes, bazaars, appeals, balls, concerts and similar fund raising events for the purpose of initiating and administering schemes for the relief of poverty, suffering and misfortune among elderly persons in Bermuda;

2. With the approval of the Minister of Works & Engineering, the facilities of his Department for preparing plans and estate roads and the supervision of buildings shall be available to the Trust free of charge;

3. Exemption from property taxes of any kind and from stamp duty, exemptions you would normally expect to see in respect to the Crown and Crown agencies;

4. Its accounts shall be audited to the satisfaction of the Minister but it does not say what the Minister is supposed to do with them and certainly doesn?t require him to table them in the House; and

5. As noted above, gives the Minister the power to determine who sits on the Board.

I do not claim to know what was the intention of the Legislature in 1965 when it created an organisation with the right to make public appeals for funds and use public resources in the furtherance of its purpose of initiating and administering schemes beneficial to the public in general or to a certain section of the public, all with the required approval of the Minister responsible for housing, and yet not require a public accounting of these functions and of this responsibility.

It would seem, however, that current thinking on the accountability of public officials on their responsibilities and of the use of public resources would require tabling the accounts of the Bermuda Housing Trust in the House of Assembly.

Indeed, I would find it very strange if a deemed Government-controlled organisation was not expected to operate in the environment of public accountability.

LARRY T. DENNIS, CA

Auditor General

Credit where it?s due

August 25, 2005

Dear Sir,

I wanted to thank you for your coverage of the BHB telemedicine initiative in today?s paper. However, I think it is important to acknowledge all of our participating overseas institutions.

Partners International, which was not acknowledged in the article, is a Harvard associated conglomerate consisting of Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham & Women?s Hospital, Maclean Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Dr. John Stakes and Partners International were particularly instrumental in getting our videoconferencing off the ground and we have even had a representative from Partners International, Ms Leslie Shane, physically present here in Bermuda as we were starting. Additionally, Partners has been able to assist us with technical issues that we were experiencing with other overseas participants.

I do hope that The Royal Gazette will be able to give due recognition to the role that Partners International has played in the BHB telemedicine initiative.

DR. CATHRYN SIDDLE

Director, Department of Continuing Medical Education

Bermuda Hospitals Board